ActivePython Business Edition now ships with Numpy, SciPy and matplotlib - three fundamental python packages for financial and scientific computing. With the recent US SEC proposals to use python for ABS financial models - there are more than a few python-curious accountants, analysts and regulators starting to research and play with python.

With the rise in visibility of the extensive use of Python in Finance driven by the recent SEC proposal (PDF) to require that most asset-backed securities issuers file a python computer program to model and document the flow of funds (or waterfall) provisions of the transaction, we thought it timely to ask the "must-have" Python packag

Not only does having the right API reduce learning time, it also relieves the development community of the need to have certain debates: design discussions that would have spawned long and contentious mailing list threads simply do not come up. That may not be quite the same thing as pure technical or aesthetic beauty, but in a project with many participants and a constant turnover rate, it's a beauty you can use.